Spring brings lots of change!

So once again, I have let the blog slip through my fingers. But in the wake of spring cleaning, I decided that I should include a clean of the blog and adding to it! :)
And lots of things have occurred since the last post, all of them a marvellous example of God's goodness to us.
We now know that we're expecting a baby girl in July.
Colin started walking.
Mark got a new job starting next year at Clifton College, a private secondary school here in Bristol.
And we have found a house to rent in Shirehampton.

We move the first weekend in May and I'm looking forward to having a garden (yard, American friends) for the first time here! Especially now that Colin is so mobile I'm glad for that!
I thought I should post a few pics of our spring happenings as well as what our crazy boy has been up to.

Lately, we've discovered that climbing into the drawer is fun

Watching kids kick the ball. It's very exciting

Walking outside in his big boy shoes

Sunshine on spring flowers

Reading with Daddy

Since our son is always in motion, I'm glad I caught him briefly not flipping pages. :) 

Pink Velvet Roulade

So I haven't made a roulade since college. And I was really pleased with the results. I wanted to do a practice run as the roulade makes up part of the Southern Bombe I'm making for Valentine's Day. So here tis. Also, I can't say enough good things about the Wilton color gels. The burgundy made this beautiful pink color!

Winter Wonderland

Well I did it again. Stopped paying attention for ONE second and 2 months went by. Sigh. But I'm back finally and trying to keep up with everything!
I should mention how delighted I am to have my first proper English snowfall. The English aren't as delighted but too bad. We have had almost a WHOLE week with snow on the ground and it's been falling on and off fairly consistently as well. Of course this does make it awkward for those of us without cars who are trying to push buggies on unshoveled pavement (apparently, no one here can be bothered to take responsibility for their own sidewalks. Grrr...) but hey it's pretty. And I was trying to explain to people how great this is because it makes us appreciate spring so much more. Usually English weather just slouches into April and then realizes that it can cheer up and pop out some daffodils. Now, I shall feel as though we have properly had four seasons. :)
And of course, this sort of weather is the perfect excuse for me to be baking so today's project is a pink velvet roulade cake. Sounds fancy but really isn't too hard. It looks quite pretty though, so I shall post pics on a future blog.
We've also had fun introducing Colin to his first snow. Sadly, we couldn't let him crawl around as we don't have a snowsuit yet, but he did like touching and eating it while we held him. I'm already looking forward to when he's old enough to go sledding. And then, quite contrarily, I don't want him to be that old because it means he's growing up!! But each stage is fun, so I'm trying to remember to live in the moment.
Anyway, here's some pics of our Bristol snow!!

Giving Thanks

It's been rather intensely busy here and before you know it, a month has flown by! I am constantly amazed how fast time moves. My son is almost a year old and getting very mobile. He can stand with help from furniture and he crawls as though he's racing everyone everywhere. :)
I must admit that I have struggled a lot this month to be thankful. There's been many things surrounding that, but it wouldn't be productive to share that here. Instead, God has been reminding me that the best cure for my discontent is to BE thankful and I thought I should share what I have to be thankful for. And as it's November that seems particularly appropriate.
Mark and I enjoyed a trip over to Cambridge to celebrate Thanksgiving with Brooke and Dan as well as several other lovely Christian friends. It was Colin's first time to Cambridge as well and we were blessed with a GORGEOUS Sunday in which to walk to church and share leftovers with the Newmans as well as lovely fellowship.
A week later we celebrated a second Thanksgiving in order to share that tradition with a large group of our British friends. It was a two turkey feast and my good friend Naomi kindly cooked the second one for us. Another kind friend lent us her home as there was no way 16 people were going to fit in our little flat!
And now we are the verge of the Christmas season (ask me and we're in it, ask Mark and he says wait til December 1st :) ) and I have pulled out all our Christmas decor. I was pondering that the last time I had this stuff out, my folks were here and my Dad and Mark enjoyed tossing our denuded tree over the railing of our first floor flat, rather than drag it down the stairs. And I had just given birth to a small new person. One who is currently figuring out the joys of ringing an oversized jingle bell.
Tomorrow we will take him to pick out our first tree as a family of three. It's been lovely and cold with lots of frost. Since the closest England usually gets to snow, I'm quite pleased. It will be just the right atmosphere for Christmas tree hunting.
These are all lovely things. But they are that-things. I know that I am not to look to outside surroundings and circumstances to find my contentment and happiness. But God has been kind to use those things to bring joy and He has reminded me that the reason the holidays are lovely for me is because I know WHY we celebrate. I have a Saviour to whom I can give thanks, and whose birth I am celebrating and whose comfort and love are not limited to the times when I'm feeling good and spiritually in order. He loves me when I'm a mess as well and that still boggles my mind.
So I am thankful. I'm excited for our season of anticipation. I am thankful for my loving and patient husband. I'm thankful for my sweet boy and the new things he does every day. I'm thankful for my family, a skype away, and friends on facebook, and fellowship with believers here. See you in December!

He gets around, from town to town, or at least from kitchen to hallway

Colin is becoming a little boy now. I see babyhood morphing into toddlerdom and while he isn't 'toddling' yet, he is certainly a travelling man. His rolling abilities are quite impressive. But that's not all. He's become more and more curious about his little world and toys with blinky lights are nothing compared to the fascination of Daddy's socks on the laundry rack.
He loves to bounce and sing to music, whether that is from Top Gear, Frank Sinatra on the computer or just Mummy singing him silly songs about toes. I have hope he will be quite musical. He loves to watch the trees outside our window as they blow in the wind and he REALLY loves spotting Daddy walking home from our window. The wiggling is intense.
He has also learned to wave and will do so with intent though occasionally he'll wave to a program on tv. Not sure what that is....
He loves to skype with his grandparents and is very excited when he sees them come on. He starts to blow through his paci and growl. Again, why he does this is a mystery but for him it expresses excitement and happiness. Of course the fact that Grandpa does the growling as well, may have something to do with it. He talks a lot to me  during the day and I would like to be flattered, but he also talks to a toothbrush, a stuffed toy in his crib and our trashcan, so I'm not all that special. :)
He has also recently expressed his opinion on favorite books and gets bouncy and starts patting pages when I read from the touch and feel farm book and from Each Peach Pear Plum. He can obey the command to 'touch the cow, do it now' consistently and it's fun to see him putting all his little bits of knowledge together.
I often feel someone's hands grabbing my toes as I sit at our counter stool and look down to see a smiley face looking up at me. He's quite a stealthy mover and will surprise me often. And of course, there is nothing so delightful right now as watching the washing machine tumble and we need to applaud it so as to encourage more washing. Apparently.
We're on the verge of crawling and more world opening up. Right now though, I'll enjoy this 9 month moment.

Chillaxin' with Mummy

Hello there!

Laundry inspection

Colin got baptized!

So this past Sunday, our little man was baptized. It was really lovely to share this with the church, but also to give him two sets of godparents.
In England, this is quite common, but for me, this was very new and it was a blessing to be introduced to it. It can of course, be a simple case of picking people who give good presents. Or it could be a situation where you are good friends and picked people for that reason. However, as Christians, there's more than that. It's a very real accountability to people who are taking a vested interest in the life your child will lead--Lord willing--in Christ. And for Mark and I, it is also making a familial connection in England. We asked our dear friends Daniel and Brooke Newman and Will and Katie Corrie to be the godparents for Colin. We are so blessed to have them as both couples have been very indispensable to us in so many ways, but most importantly in spiritual relationship. We are grateful for their faithfulness and their willingness to walk alongside us as we raise Colin. But we're also grateful for a further feeling  of family and rootedness here in England. So here's to many years rejoicing in God's faithfulness together! (And here's a few pics of the baptized boy as well :) )

All the godparents and the blur is the child that wouldn't sit still with Mummy :)

One shoe off and one shoe on...

Someone has officially discovered the drawers

Happy baptized boy. 

Someone came to find me and decided to go via coffee table